There's no need to gamble on these Unix tools.

A programming language from Japan is making coding enjoyable again. Take a look at why Ruby will make you happy.

Whatever kind of program you have to write, you can probably write it in Python. What makes Python so powerful?

On those rare occasions when you have to reboot your Linux system, the first thing you probably see is the terse prompt of LILO, the most common bootloader for Linux on Intel-compatible systems. Its familiar prompt LILO: is itself a diagnostic indicating the progress of the booting process.

Vim is a fascinating editor. You could spend a lifetime learning the intricacies of its strange but powerful interface without knowing everything it can do. One thing you might not know is that you can write scripts to control Vim in another language.

Over the past several months, this column has shown you how to use gcc and g++ language extensions, how to link objects and functions, and how to build executables. We will continue this month with a discussion about a very specific type of object -- a shared (or dynamic) library -- and how to take advantage of it in your programs.

Parallel computing can be utilized to perform numerous computations quickly and solve problems by making many processors work simultaneously on smaller subtasks or subsets of the data. Parallel computing is often used on problems that cannot be solved by more conventional means (such as using a serial algorithm running on a PC or workstation).

If you're a well-seasoned Net surfer, you've undoubtedly noticed that the number of "community" Web sites run by individuals, small companies, and other organizations has increased dramatically over the last few years. These sites serve as places for folks with common interests to meet, discuss ideas, share information, and collaborate in many interesting ways.

Before Netscape, when Mosaic ruled the Web and people needed a straightforward way to exchange information between client and server, the Common Gateway Interface (CGI) was born. CGI applications (usually called scripts) run on the server side. A user initiates a request via HTTP and optionally transmits information, which is handed off to the CGI script. The script processes the information and packages a reply, which the server sends to the user.

The great thing about Web servers is that they can serve more than Web pages. They can serve stuff. Sometimes that stuff is inside tarballs, those little bundles of joy that efficiently hold many files (sometimes numbering in the thousands) for convenient transferring or archiving. A recent message on the Perl Monastery (http://www.perlmonks.org) inspired me. The person known as "Screamer" posted a little note titled "Serving tarball contents as part of your webspace." It was very short and appears in Listing One.

With the advent of a number of GUI configuration tools, the basic networking tools are being further abstracted from the everyday user. Here are a number of "back to basics" troubleshooting tips to help you identify where problems could be originating.

Ximian Desktop: a Good Start

What do you do when your system doesn't boot? If you happen to have disks provided by a distribution vendor, then you can probably boot from them; however, you can often only use them to reinstall the operating system, not repair your system.

So you want to make a living from Linux, do you? Well, it can be done, but it's not easy. Linux continues to gain in popularity, but someone qualified as a Microsoft Certified System Engineer (MCSE) still has a much easier time finding a job.